December 31, 2020
Wow, 2020 was really something, wasn’t it? Isn’t that what you say when you don’t know what to say about something?
Throughout the year 2020 we were building a new house in an airport community (in case you haven’t been reading my previous blogs). We were pretty surprised that the builder finished it only about a month later than they originally targeted. A friend in the house building business explained to us that, since most of the materials were likely sourced prior to the pandemic beginning in March 2020, they were “in the pipeline” and then the only possible obstacle to slow things down would be labor. But it appears our builder has some really good teams and they kept working throughout the year. We were lucky in both respects.
As the building continued, I would fly from my home airport, Anahuac [T00], to the new airport near New Waverly, formally known as Estates [XS09] (but locally the name used varies a lot…. “Estates,” “Waverly Estates”, “Waverly”, “Waverly Acres” or “New Waverly.” Since most traffic is from the local pilots, no one seems to mind the variety). I usually opt for “Waverly Estates.”
One of my last flights from when I was based at Anahauc worth mentioning happened on September 30, 2020, when my brother Jim and I flew down to the coast to take a spin around the Bolivar Peninsula and the Bolivar ferry. I got a lot of really nice shots on this flight, and realized I was going to miss the close proximity to the beach… there is always a lot to see. Here are some shots from that flight.
Finally, on October 21, 2020, we took possession of our baby. My wife had built a house to her specs in a preceding life, but this was my first. We spent a good part of 2019 thinking of, planning for, and designing this home. We absolutely love it and are very happy with the builder and very happy with the way it was built and finished.
Three weeks before we were handed the keys, I asked permission from the builder to install a taxiway from the hangar apron to the runway. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get my gyroplane to the hangar without a taxiway. Several pallets of grass sod later, the beginnings of the taxiway were complete.
I say “beginnings” because fresh sod is notoriously soft and if I ran the plane up on it right away, it would create ruts. To attenuate this possibility Amy and I spent the good part of two days installing a “grass protection mesh” over the sod. Eventually, the grass will grow through the mesh and I’ll end up with a very robust taxiway. In the meantime, the mesh itself will protect the soft sod from tracks and ruts.
Although it was only nine days after we took possession that I flew my gyroplane to its new “forever home”, it seemed much longer. What had always been round trips from Anahuac would be, on October 30th, a one-way trip. Yes, as always, I took pictures along the way, but the best part of that flight was taxiing the gyro up the taxiway, to the apron. I was so happy!
Excited to be able to stroll from the house to the hangar, a mere few footsteps away — for the first time in my life — the next day I also executed a sunset flight, something I have rarely done. In fact, I flew all the way until minutes before the end of civil twilight, staying perfectly legal.
Throughout the next two months, I spent exhausting days working on unloading moving boxes, moving furniture around, and all the other thousands of details needed to be done when moving into a new house. But I also managed several local flights.
On the December 8 flight, I had finally found a place I could safely and securely mount a video camera (GoPro) to the plane, so I did a test video, which you may enjoy watching. It’s not going to blow your socks off, by any means, and please keep in mind it’s my first attempt. The video is edited but there’s no music, nothing fancy. But during the fly-by, it’s always cool to see the shadow of the gyro. My landing was unusually long. The other cool thing is that you can see me taxi all the way up to my hangar… to you maybe it’s yawnsville, but to me it’s always exciting to be able to do that.
During the last of those 2020 flights — December 17 — I noticed that my engine was running rough during idling. In the air, it was fine. After some quick tests and checks, I determined that the right carburetor had an issue. Since it was something that only occurred on the ground, I felt confident that I would be able to fly the plane over to my A&P’s airport, so he could take a look. And that’s what I did on December 21.
It’s a 45-minute flight over to TX42 Fair Weather Field, the airport where my A&P — Wayne — runs his business. I did another video of the flight to TX42, but it’s not very exciting… if you really want to see it, go here: https://youtu.be/LuL15YUbsIw I’ve sped up the middle part of the video — making a 45 minute flight last only 18 minutes — but I’ve also annotated it a little.
If you didn’t view the video, here are a few photos I took on the way:
Regarding my carburetor problem, read this if you want to know the gory details… otherwise, skip down:
I knew there was a service bulletin put out by the engine manufacturer, Rotax, on the carb floats so that’s why I was pretty sure I knew what my issue was. The floats don’t do much after the engine is at around 3,000 rpm, so even though I was idling poorly, I knew the engine was fine. Prior this trip to my A&P, I did two flights where I stuck around the neighborhood and stayed up as long as it would take for me to fly to TX42. If there were any indication on those two flights that my issue wasn’t the floats, then I wouldn’t have flown it to the A&P… but there wasn’t… it flew great and the engine was running like a top.
When I got to TX42 and pulled the throttle back to idle, that is where it has the issue and this time the engine quit. (On my previous two flights around the neighborhood, when I landed, it hadn’t quit but only just barely… once I was on the ground I had to keep it up around 3,000 rpm to keep it running.) So, all of that is why it was a pretty good chance that I’d make it to TX42 without issues. I wasn’t surprised at all that the engine quit when I pulled the throttle back upon landing. I was more surprised that it restarted so easily… I often have trouble restarting the engine when it’s warm. (Maybe it restarted because it was hot, not warm!)
Wayne (my A&P) did a great job, as always, and replaced the bad float. Within just an hour or so, I was on my way back to Waverly Estates with a smooth idling engine.
So, other than minor local flights, that finished out the interesting year of 2020. We still spend an inordinate amount of time working on the house, getting it ready for company (when the pandemic is over), but I try to fly at least a couple of times a week.
12 months ago, I really expected to have a lot more flights and more stories on Texas-Flyer than I’ve had in the past, but between the new house and the pandemic, it turned out quite different than planned. Even now, 2021 doesn’t look to be much better in that respect. Bottom-line, though, I’m thrilled to be living at the airport and just steps away from my plane. That is quite amazing! We look forward to exploring the area and finding new places to visit.
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Congratulations to both of you! I would love to do something similar one day soon. Wayne Lohmeyer over at Fair Weather Field is a nice guy & knows his stuff. He installed ADSB Out along with some other maintenance items for me. Your new home and hangar look great, enjoy!
Thanks! Come visit!
Great article and love the pics. The Lord has been good to you. Love your new home and hanger. Great job on the GoPro. I need to get one of those.
Take care and happy flying. Tell Jim hello!
Really liked the photos! Great job and nice to see you are living your dream!
Welcome home neighbor.